San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1887-03-18

guished by the highest and noblest traits
OF mind and heart and character, ever so
benevolent ana charitable and sell sac
rificing 10 right and duty, Is forever re-
iected by God, and cursed with the
stamp OF eternal wrath. l venture To
say there 10 not one synagogue through
out the world. not one congregation that
worships there, be II composed OF tue
lowest IN mind and the most oig ted,
where q Rabbi, a TEACHER IN Israel, would
dare to stultify himself By a similar as
sertion' His Bible teaches hun TO re-
speut and nonor In every human being
the image Of God; His Bible nowhere
tells hin that he who believes Is safe aud
he " no doubts or denies Is oct; his Tall
mud teaches him that tn pious OF all IA.
tions inherit eternal life and bliss ana
his common sense e. lie him that the test
Of piety 10 not the belief he processes.
but bis actions, his good ana Vlriuo's
life. OF course We believe In divine is
Iice rrwarding the good and furnishing
the wicked, that GUd's retributIVe Us
IiCe Teaches every one partly 10 lhi-
world already, and partly In the world
TO CONT; but We emphatically deny that
revenge Is the object OF divine punish
ment; We assert that even dlvlhe pun
ishuIent leads to salvation, and has no
other purpose than the aBelioration OF
the soul and its publication from SIN anu
0 ror
lis furthermore a characteristic trait
Of our religion. that it IS not based upon
faith hut upon knowledge. here 10 IN
the whole Kingdom OF the Hebrew Ian
yuage, 80 abundsntly rich In religious
expression and sentiments, not one word
III at denotes faith In the spirit We take
iI: but the Bible never tires In the inJunc-
ton,
Know the God OF thy fathers.
hou shalt know 10 thy heart that the
Lord ID God In heaven, and upon earLh
and no other" and the prophet 10 vision
Of futur- state OF human goodness AMI
felicity rounds of MS glowing plo-
tur. Of The Mrssianio time with
exclamation that the earth will be full 81
The kno sledge Of God as the waite
cover the Sea. Therefore. inteilectuai
development, mental Improvement,
-ci-ntitic study, enlightenment ana pro
xress were always honOred. enc urageh
and ssncIitied by our religion. IN ~
pIorablp fact OF the treatment OF D.
Costa aud Splnnzs by the synagogue at
Amsterdam is such n pitiable exception
20 The general rule, that 1t can only DE-
accounted for by the circumstance that
the ewiIh congregation there consisted
mostly Of men who were refugees from
spain and Porting where they breathed
G. q breath OF intolerance ana per-ecu-
ton. and proves once more 10 the his
Iory of mpr kind that even the best re
ligiUus fe, lings are vitisted by the force
uI bad exnmy,e, and submit 10 the IN
fuence and the spirit OF the tunes.
Our sag.s 10 the dark ages occupied
themselves mostly with the study OF
mathematics, astronomy, philosophy,
medicine and TaImud, and applied their
mental ability In discovering and ex-
planning the discrepancies between the
trachings OF religion and the results OF
philosophy. They though: TO have ac-
cUmplished this end oy taking express
sions aud relations Of the bible In ny
urative and AllegOrical sense. In our
lines, when the facts OF science and rev.
citation face each other In more glarIng
opposition, we solve the problem oy
saying that the bible 10 Us Is not an In
failIbie book, that the scriptures
are product OF men inspired with d.
vine wisdom, but who, with all the
Grausoendent and excellent truths they
reveal, were nevertheless but men, lia0i'
10 eIr and to fail. And we are Justified
10 think so by no less an authority than
the prophets themselves. You know
that they were almost all opposed 10 the
Institution of bloody sacrifices, insisting
everywhere upon spiritual worship,
wherpupon a learned rabbi Of the Ian
century declared tnat these sacrifices
we're but tolerated by Moss Ms a con
nessiOn TO the religious views OF the an
cient times. The prophet EZ kiel pro-
Jested against the Biblical saying, that
he sins OF the fathers are visited on the
n ldren, prOclaiming that the father
shall not bear the sins Of the son. nor
be son those of the father, but that
every one dies In his own iniquity. La
thu spirit Of this liberal conception
the Bible we have discarded many OLD
usages. forms, traditions, That In former
ages were considered as an essential
part of our religion. The more en-
iiyhtened class OF our people do not be-
'ieve in n personal Messiah to come OF
70 have ever come; do not believe in the
restoration OF the land Of Palestine into
our possession, nor in the restoration Of
the Temple and it's bloody sacrifices,
and all the prayers referring TO
these ideas are stricken from
the prayer book. We do not
wish TO be people separate
from others we are perfectly satisfied,
and happy to be an integral part Of the
nation In the midst OF which We live,
Americans in America, EnglIshmen In
4 gland, Frenchmen in France, Ger
mans IN Germany, as true, loyal, deVO-
ted and faithful to our country ana to
our government as any other part OF our
n I on. We believe In the pre- gre OF civ
inZation, freedom and humanity, and
work for il with the best of our powers
a IL III. Il
ness and moral duties, the sanctity OF
family lif-, cOnjugal and tilisl devotion
and all such trans as COZ stitute an hon
0rahle life, and which In the phrsseology
Of the church you Coll Christian virtues,
Christian graces, Christian charities, we
DO not differ at all from our Christian
fellOwmen and hold them as dear and rs
sacred as you do.